Gorden Wagener’s Visit Creates Inspiration for Inner City Youth
A new generation of engineers was inspired by a visit from Mercedes Benz vice president of design Daimler AG, Gorden Wagener. He flew across the Atlantic Ocean from Germany to his visit Woodcraft Rangers’ NVISION after-school program at Gage Middle School in Huntington Park. A brief presentation of his career path and his current job responsibilities wowed the students. He followed with a Q&A session, addressing questions from technology advancement to future car designs from the students.
Visitors included the Laureus USA Foundation and Up2Us Sports accompanied with a team from Mercedes USA. The partnership between Woodcraft Rangers and their supporters affect the students positively, opening their eyes to opportunities as they advance in their education.
Upon entering the school campus, the skateboarding club had designed a custom skateboard that was presented to Gorden Wagener. Following the meet and greet, Gordon proceeded to the classroom where he gave his presentation to a group of students. The students became involved, actively asking questions as they grew interested in Gorden’s presentation.
After the presentation, Gorden and the Mercedes team members took a tour around the campus observing the various clubs offered—volleyball, cheer and drill, soccer and skateboarding. Everyone joined the fun as Mercedes team members joined the skateboarding club to ride the skateboards. The vice president, Gorden, also jumped in on the fun as he rode up and down the blacktop on a skateboard with the students.
Recognizing the need for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education, Woodcraft Rangers and its partners help attract students towards those fields by infusing STEM in all their activities. The visit and presentation from Gorden sparked an interest in these young engineers to pursue prominent careers.
Woodcraft Rangers CEO Chris Johnson said, “It is great to see executive leaders in the industry talk to the kids about their profession. As a collective, we can inspire the students to become truly great at a young age.”
Gorden Wagener is the vice-president of design for the worldwide operating design unit of Daimler AG based in Germany. After studying industrial design at the University of Essen in Germany, he focused his studies in transportation design at The Royal College of Art in London.
Woodcraft Rangers is a provider of expanded learning with enrichment programs in after-school and summer learning designed for youth. Their NVISION programs engage youth with popular activities and cutting edge clubs, while inspiring students to learn about the world around them by infusing S.T.E.M. and academic vocabulary.
For further information contact, (213) 249-9293 or woodcraft@woodcraftrangers.org. To learn more about Woodcraft Rangers go to www.woodcraftrangers.org.
